Member postings for Howard Lewis

TYhis is exactly what was done when my BL12-24 was converted, pre delivery, from a single phase motor to 3 phase and VFD.

Saves an awful lot of mbelt changing!

Control of speed and direction of rotation is all done by the control box. (Looks like a Newton Tesla to my unpracticed eye )

Howard

If vit needs saying, Labyrinth seals operate by flinging oil off the shaft into a housing which has a drain hole to return the oil to the sump / reservoir..

They have the advantage over lip seals of being frictionless, but work better as speed increases, because of the gretater centrifugal forces produced by the speed.

It looks as if you've fixed it, so that is good.

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 19/08/2023 20:23:31

After my Apprenticeship, and the safety training within it, the first power tool that I owned was a 350 watt Black and Decker pistol drill.

VERY soon it was obvious that something as low powered as that could, and would, twist out of your grip.

NO chance against a geared down 3/4 hp motor!

That taught me to respect any powered machine, and to ensure that work was securely clamped, not just hand held.

But we all break the rules from time, and fortunately get away with it, MOST of the time.

If we are lucky, we will survive, and without more than scratches. or shallow cuts.

NO excuses for taking liberties; eventually the risk will catch up with us.

But don't think that I am a H & S fanatic; far from it, but a firm believer in using common sense, and just being careful.

(Subconsciously making mental risk assessments, possibly? )

Before retiring, I contemplated buying a new Myford

"Is it for you, or for a school or college"

"What's the difference?"

"For a school or college, it HAS to have a chuck guard. You don't have to"

My larger oriental lathe has a chuckguard with safety switch, so I don't have the option, although it has to be removed when using a collet chuck (Because the rear toolpost fouls the spindle.. Just BE CAREFUL )

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 19/08/2023 11:25:16

DEFINITELY get sets of thread gaugaes, so that you don't have htis problem in the future.

You can measure the OD of the external thread - it will give a good idea of the actual size (Often measured as slightly under size due to truncation / rounding ) and the thread gauges will tell you the pitch."

Note the word "sets", having Whit, Unf / Unc, Metric, (and even BA can be usefiul at times )

These should allow you to identify a thread fairly quickly, and avoid problrms with attempting to mate two different thread forms or pitches.

A relatively small, but worthwhile investment.

Howard

Welcome to the Forum

Always someone on here who can help you. With advice, in person, by making things for you.

Pity that you sold the Craftsman. I have had a lookalike for twenty years, and wouldn't be without it.

A most useful machine.

Youn are going to enjoy yourself!

Howard

Custard powder, sawdust, and coal dust are all hydrocarbons, so if mixed with oxygen, in the air, or elsewhere, can be combustible. amd so explosive..

In America at least one railroad company experimented with coal dust as a suitable substitute for coal in a specially built steam loco.

There have also been esxperiemnts to inject coal dust as a fuel ,for compression ignition engines. (The problem was that the coal dust slurry, being abrasive, shortened the life of the pump and injector components. )

My future in laws lived in a flat, and the old ladies below would carry coal, up the stairs, dropping coal dust as they went.

Terrified me, fearing, at least, a fire, if not an explosion, as we all crunched our way upstairs!

Thankfully, F i L retired and they moved out!

Even wire wool will burn!

Howard

The same applied to our main site electrician. Qualified to maintain and install all electrical services on a 22 acre site, from 11kV down to 240V, but not qualified to do work in his own home.

Same situation with two friends of mine.

I have electrical endorsement to HNC, and over the years, have safely done various electrical jobs at home.

Years ago a LEB electrician changed the meter, but it was I who found that he had reversed the polarity, and had to get it rectified as an emergency!

But, presumably we are not "competent" to fit a fuse to a 13 Anp plug!

Howard

If it is any help,

ER32 collets will accept work up to 20 mm diameter, which is 0.7874"; a shade larger than your 3/4" nominal bore.

ER25 atb 16 mm is just smaller so not much use to you.

FWIW, I would favour a backplate type collet chuck, so that longer work can extens into the spindle bore.

When I fitted a chuck mto the backplate on my lathe, I coated the surfaces with anaerobic sealant, and with the bolts lightly nipped, clocked the taper bore until it was within 0.0005", before fully tightening bthe bolts and rechecking.

Howard

We are fortunate to have good, trusted suppliers, like Arc Euro, Tracy JB, etc

They go the extra mile for their customers, to ensure that the end user gets what they want, or their problem solved.

They are a pleasure to deal with, and contrast to what is shown on the consumer progtrammes on TV.

Howard

So sad to learn of the loss of family members and abilities, but can sympathise..

Some 30 years ago, we lost out son, but my stiff knees are small in comparison with what others suffer.

Derek, keep in contact, so that you are still involved by proxy

ATB

Howard  (typos galore 

Edited By Howard Lewis on 16/08/2023 23:53:05

The object is to minimise noise (vibration ) transmissionto the floor.

To do this the machine needs to decoupled from the floor by a resilient mounting; within reason, as soft as is practicable. But you don't want to be operating a machine that wobbles like jelly or tries to walk around the shop!

If fixing to the floor, the bolts need to be smaller than the holes, to allow alittle horizontal movememt , while the resilient bmounting allows some slight vertical (Don't clamp down absolutely solid, otherwise the resilient mount won't be able to work. Slight compression. )

Howard

If the purpose is purely need , could you make one (particularly if you have a few dimensions / an illustration that can be scaled )

Easier if youy have access to a mill, otherwise some filing invoved.

Looks may be less important than ability to do what is required.

If sticking as closely as possible to prototype than you are looking to find a genuine article somewhere.

Howard

Welcome to the Forum.

On here, we all trey to help one another, so your experience may be called upon from time to time.

Howard,

Welcome!

ALL sorts of skills present and sometimes required on here, so you will be in good company.

Howard

Soime time ago, MEW reviwed a number of digital callipers.

Some of the cheapies had shorter batteryb lives because they kept the memory alive when switched off

The LIDL and ALDI ones fared pretty well, and as esxpected the £80 Mitytoyo came out best.

Apparently, there been instances of fake Mitutoyos being sold, which, unsurprisingly, do not live up to the reputation of the genuine article!

What seemed to be the best compromise between price and overall performance appeared to be the M&W one sold by Machine DRO. (About £24 at the time)

My old and now battered (Thumbwheel missing, battery cover retained by an O ring ) LIDL one is still the one in everyday use.

But the jaws are wiped and the Zero checked and reset almost everytime. II is reasonably, but not ABSOLUTELY repeatable, needs to used with care, and an overcheck with a micrometer or bore set., for final precision.

As so often, you get what you pay for.

Howard

RH&DR locos that have run over the Ravenglass and Eskdale tend to return to their flat homeland with charred smokebox doors.

This is caused by prolonged hard work over undulating terrain and an unavoidable build up of char / ash in the smoke box between cleaning sessions.

So the same will be true for any steam loco that works hard for long periods. The blast will pull hot gas and ash through the tubes and deposit it in the smokebox until the ash builds up and burns the paint on the door.

In the same way, any paint on the air cooled exhaust manifold of a hard worked internal combustion engine does not stay intact for long, once the engine is put to work.

Howard

Unless the boring head is an Imperial one, I would expect the thread to be Metric. The 38 mm OD supports this impression.

FWIW, a 1.5 mm pitch will equate to 16.933 tpi., roughly half way between 16 and 18 tpi.

Howard

Holding an ER collet chuck, with a plain shank in another ER collet chuck, will not only have the disadvantage of not being able to pass material through into the spindle, but possibly reduce the concentricity, by virtue of the fact that the shank and the taper for the collets will have a tolerance on the concentricity between the two.

Sod's law says that the tolerances on the original collet and chuck will be increased by the eccenticities coinciding and whatever the eccentricity is between the shank and the collet taper will add to that of the original chuck!

Daft suggestion, which will still, unavoidably, introduce extra tolerances / eccentricities.

Turn up a taper to sut the collet chuck (16 degrees overall) on a hollow extension, and then use an ER nut to clamp it in place.

The outer end of the extension will need to be screw cut and internally tapered to suit the collets and the clamp nut. without disturbing the "dummy" collet and extension assembly, to maximise concentricty.

The difficulty is going to be the means of engaging the nut when the time comes to release the "dummy taper" extension from the original collet chuck.

Maybe a two piece extension, with a groove, into which the nut can be engaged, before the outer part is fitted into position.

The two parts need to be such that when assembled, there is a groove into which the clamp nut has already been engaged.

The outer taper bore and thread need to be machined after the the outer section has been fitted to the "Dummy" collet, inner part.. (Screwed / Loctited / Heat & Freeze )

Since the extension will be hollow, it will be possible to pass longer workpieces into the lathe spindle.

But repeateability will remain to be seen. It may be necessary to mark both collet chuck and extension so that they are always assembled in the same realtive position.

The other drisadvantage will be that the extension will have a smaller bore than the original collet chuck. So an ER 32 chuck may well end up with ER25 collets on the end of the extension. But 16 mm for long pieces will be better than no through capacity.

HTH

Howard

Possibly, the slightly longer induction tract lowers peak torque speed?

But the longer column of air may give a little better cylinder filling / scavenge at max power speed?

And the chnage of carbs, and mixture strengths will obviously have an effect.

Superb job though!

Howard

Hugh at Amadeal ought to be able to tell you what is the correct fuse, and supply replacements.

If not, talk to Ian at Arc Euro, to see if they can supply the correct fuse.

Give him full details of the lathe, so that he will be able to find the right part.

But if the correct fuses blow something is wrong, or you are asking too much of the machine.

Remember it has a relatively low powered motor, in a hobby machine, and running at low speed means little air flow to cool the motor. Hopefully, you have not already done damage.

What speed?

What depth of cut?

What feed rate?

Howard